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Definitely is a little weird that he choose oregon over schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Kansas, Oklahoma, and UCLA but im sure he has his reason. Hopefully we can make him regret the deceision by making a run through the tournament next year.

Malik placed importance on proximity to home and a chance to win the NCAA championship. What school could possibly beat Oregon on those criteria (you literally can't get further from Detroit than Eugene without going to Hawaii and the Ducks were 9-9 in the PAC 10 last year)? He also said he valued the loyalty of the schools who had stuck with him through the process, and Oregon has been there since, what, uh, last month? And of course he mentioned opportunites in and out ot basketball. Where can one possibly make more contacts than Eugene, Oregon (population roughly 140k, but only 100 miles from Portland)?

It may sound like sour grapes, but I am dumbfounded with this decision. Sometimes you gotta listen to Occam - the most obvious explanation could be the correct one.

If it walks like a Duck and quacks like a Duck - it just might be a shoe contract.

I was not aware until today that Oregon was the only school that Malik visited without his parents. This is sounding suspisciouser and suspiciouser.

Has Malik actually signed an LOI yet? If the NCAA plans to look at this they may just wait til that happens (although violations are violations regardless of where the kid goes). In the mean time I would love to see the heat get turned up on this thing. The kid could still change his mind. (And I realize OSU wasn't even second, so getting him isn't the point.)

Jim O’Brien grew up in the psychedelic ’60s, when a common catchphrase among teenagers was "Never trust anyone over 30."

The Buckeyes, on paper, were thought to top the list of contenders. Hairston, a 6-foot-5 McDonald’s All-American from Detroit, had narrowed his list to OSU, Kansas, Oregon, Oklahoma, UCLA and Michigan. But Ohio State came out ahead on Hairston’s points-based rating system, which considered such criteria as quality of coaching, proximity to home and opportunity to start immediately.

Ohio State has one of the game’s most honest coaches and best tacticians in O’Brien, Columbus is a 3½-hour drive from Detroit, and Hairston likely would have pushed J.J. Sullinger for a starting spot on the wing. Hairston also rated the likelihood of winning a national title.

Oregon has a relatively unknown coach in Ernie Kent, is a three-day drive from Detroit

Nearly four decades later, the 54-yearold Ohio State men’s basketball coach is on the opposite side of the timeline. Things have flip-flopped. It’s a new vantage point, and it screams, "Never rely on anyone still in high school."

At least not until they sign on the dotted line.

Obie got burned by teen spirit yesterday when top-10 recruit Malik Hairston chose Oregon over Ohio State and five other schools. and has about as much chance of winning a national championship as does MIT.

But . . . Hairston is a teenager, and teens — and their parents — are easily influenced and impressed.

Hairston flew by private jet to Oregon for his official visit. Maybe he bumped into Nike founder Phil Knight while visiting the campus in Eugene. Maybe Hairston based his decision on future financial considerations.

Or maybe it was watching an NBA playoff game up close and personal that sealed the deal. Hairston was spotted watching a Detroit-New Jersey playoff game from the private box of Pistons guard Richard Hamilton, who wears Nike gear.

That’s the kind of quasi-ethical stuff that drives an oldschool coach like O’Brien nuts, which is why he has been loathe to play the recruiting game that centers on favors and perks. Come to school. Get an education. Play ball.

The alternative is repulsive to men of integrity — with good reason. When Missouri bounced OSU from the 2002 NCAA Tournament, critics, including this one, questioned how the Tigers could recruit blue-chip talent but O’Brien couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

Fast forward to this week, when the NCAA determined that Missouri violated multiple rules between 1999 and 2003. The infractions included the alleged payment of players, impermissible contact with recruits and free meals to AAU coaches.

Give me character over shady characters every time.

That’s not to suggest Oregon broke rules to bag Hairston. The Ducks had two perimeter players drafted in the last several years and likely will add a third when Luke Jackson goes in June. That’s pretty tasty bait with which to hook a recruit. The Ducks also play a more uptempo brand of basketball than the Buckeyes, and Hairston likes to run. Oregon also sold the kid on becoming the most highprofile recruit in school history.

Still, the Ducks didn’t enter the picture until April. Ohio State had invested two years in the kid. Losing Hairston to a school that entered a 400-meter race with 20 meters remaining has to be a bitter disappointment for OSU coaches. For the past year, they focused their recruiting efforts at the small forward position exclusively on bringing in the Detroit phenom, who would have been the highest-rated OSU recruit since Jim Jackson in 1989.

And for what? In the end, the 17-year-old turned out to be a tease.

For O’Brien, missing out on Hairston has to reinforce the damned-if-you-do, damned-ifyou-don’t nature of recruiting. Go after a big name but fail to land him and you’re labeled a coach who can’t recruit. Choose to refrain from playing the schmooze game and they say you won’t recruit.

It’s enough to make a coach go gray. As anyone with teens will tell you.

Private plane for Hairston necessary, Kent says
Ernie Kent (left), seen here at Oregon's NIT game against George Mason, met with the media Monday to talk about his 2004 recruiting class and defend the use of a private plane to help top 10 recruit Malik Hairston get to Eugene.

Kent spoke highly of his recruiting class Monday but also defended the use of a private plane
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
May 18, 2004

Oregon head coach Ernie Kent was in St. Louis at the National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors meetings on Wednesday, checking his cell phone in between sessions, hoping for a message from Renaissance High School's Malik Hairston.

Would Hairston choose Oregon or Kansas, the two schools he had narrowed down from six suitors just days before?

At one point, Kent heard the rumors. But he had to know for sure.

Suffice to say, Kent got the answer he was looking for, even though it wasn't official until Thursday. Hairston will be a Duck, starting in the 2004 season.

With that signing has come national recognition for the Ducks. But not all of that is positive.

Kent met with the media Monday for the first time since Hairston's announcement. He spoke highly of the recruiting class -- Hairston joins guards Chamberlain Oguchi, Bryce Taylor and Kenny Love; and forward Maarty Leunen -- as his main subject, but he also defended his recruitment of the 6-foot-6 guard from Detroit.

Hairston made his official visit to Oregon on April 24 during a 24-hour time frame before visiting Oklahoma. Because he had missed a scheduled commercial flight -- along with his parents -- Kent and Oregon got him a private plane.

That, according to Kent, was just the second time in seven years that he has used a private plane for a recruit. And it only became necessary because of Hairston's tightly packed travel schedule.

Hairston's parents subsequently did not make the trip to Eugene, although his mother reportedly favored Oregon during the last month or so of the recruiting process.

The use of the plane has raised questions in the minds of some across the nation, including The Columbus Dispatch's Rob Oller, who wrote on Thursday: "Oregon has a relatively unknown coach in Ernie Kent, is a three-day drive from Detroit and has about as much chance of winning a national championship as does MIT.

"But ... Hairston is a teenager, and teens -- and their parents -- are easily influenced and impressed."

Oller compared Kent to Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien, who he said is "one of the game's most honest coaches and best tacticians," but lost in the Hairston sweepstakes.

Some have also found it ironic that Kent, who is generally against the use of private planes, used one in Hairston's situation. ESPN.com's Andy Katz wrote the use of the plane suggested Hairston is "royalty." The plane, Katz said, took $21,000 to operate out to Eugene and back to Detroit, a figure not disputed by the Ducks.

Kent said the private plane was the only way to get Hairston out to Eugene. Yet, he -- and some other coaches -- are for possible NCAA legislation that would make it illegal to use private planes in recruiting, even though their use with Oregon's football team is widely known around the nation. Head football coach Mike Bellotti, Kent said, is up against a different dynamic.

"The thing I am opposed about is anything that hinders educational opportunities," he said. "They're going to have to bring it all into perspective sooner or later."

Hairston's signing might open up some recruiting inroads to the Detroit area for Kent and the Ducks. The Michigan area is generally recognized as one of the better communities in the nation for high school basketball.

Oh, and he's also learned a lot about recruiting a top 10 player. That, he hopes, might come into play again in the near future.

"There's a lot more mudslinging," he said. "You get attacked more. There's a lot of stuff coming our way. But we don't need to go there."

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